29 gallon Amazon river set up!

[CrashBandit05]

Just set up my 29 gallon! Trying to go for an Amazon River theme with sand substrate and several pieces of driftwood! First time using sand and I like the look muuuuch better.

Do you all have any suggestions for high temperature plants? I've got the heater set on 80-81 as I'll eventually get some German blue rams. 

Open to suggestions and options! I definitely want to get some more plants (floating and rooted) and maybe a few stones? Anyways on to the picture. Nothing major but everyone knows the excitement when setting up a new aquarium!

[Patrick_G]

Looks nice, great piece of driftwood! 
 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/30/2022 at 3:16 PM, CrashBandit05 said:

First time using sand and I like the look muuuuch better.

Agreed! It's such a nice look in my view too. Worth the extra work on cleaning time.

On 6/30/2022 at 3:16 PM, CrashBandit05 said:

Open to suggestions and options! I definitely want to get some more plants (floating and rooted) and maybe a few stones? Anyways on to the picture. Nothing major but everyone knows the excitement when setting up a new aquarium!

It is definitely exciting and a very.... Impatient time of the hobby for me when a tank is sitting there staring at me. I have a piece of driftwood, a stump type of thing that looks very similar to the one you have! Very cool piece because the fish can get underneath and use it as a cover and hide out, which makes me go right to thinking about corydoras and what not.

I think as far as scape and rocks and such I like what you have.

I mentioned that stump I have. One of the things I like to do, and again this goes back to species you opt to keep in the tank, is to have an anchor and then have a lean-to type of "cover".  So in the family tank I have this piece of mopani held up by a lava rock on one side. My entire goal is to make sure that the fish has a cover because that fish hides all day. She has a favorite piece of wood, she has a specific way she likes to face, and if I adjust things slightly and don't put them back to her satisfaction she lets me know. It's a fun way to approach the tank you have in work here because I think it's a candidate for this type of method.

Let's say you have a smaller to medium size rock. You can set that towards the front-center or middle-center region of the tank and then use that to give yourself something to set a piece of wood from the top of your stump and then it arches towards the right of the tank. It gives that piece you have some life because it's a slightly flat shape in some dimensions. It has some movement to the form, but it's also not a ton of cover. It's an arch, an "A" shape but it could have a pretty good aesthetic if there was slightly taller piece of wood with a few branches giving the scape some height. Adding in some rock where the wood meets the sand gives the tank a very nice texture variety I think or can be used to visually stabilize the wood at the specific angle you're wanting to highlight.

You can also take the piece of wood you have and invert it. The part that points towards the center of the tank, if it was up, leaning on a good size rock or wrapping around a rock might give that same height to accentuate the 29G and fill the vertical space or the front to back dimension a bit. I would flip the wood in all sorts of directions and take photos of each and just see what you prefer. You might find a piece of wood that goes extremely well with the piece you have to accent it just the right way and slightly boost that cave/cover section underneath that you have right now in your layout.

As for plants, I kind of get a dwarf sag vibe from the foreground. I think a wall of pogostemon stellatus octopus would add a nice wall on the back of the tank and highlight the color of the wood really well too! Another option for the back is something like Scarlet Temple or Bacopa Carolinia. If you prefer red as the scheme go with the ST, but if you want to stick with that bright green contrast and making the wood "pop" I think either PSO or the Bacopa will do nicely when it fills in.

[CrashBandit05]

@Patrick_G thanks! @nabokovfan87 I really appreciate the insight you have shared! I will mess around with the main piece of driftwood and see how I can arrange it with rocks and whatnot. I'll have to see what kinds of river rock I can find.

I'd like to get a pleco of some kind, looks like I need more hiding spaces!

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/1/2022 at 4:30 AM, CrashBandit05 said:

I'd like to get a pleco of some kind, looks like I need more hiding spaces!

I'll have to snag a picture for you tonight. I have two plecos in my tank, only a single piece of wood, and you'd almost never see them if you don't know where to look. Depending what kind of pleco you want you're going to have different locations they like to hang out. Pleco caves are really cool too. Difficult to get the size right so I have a few on hand now as a result. The plecos definitely love caves specifically just to feel safe when hiding out during the day. But, I just wanted to say that the fish will definitely be fine with exactly what you have now and hide perfectly fine. That's their specialty!

[CrashBandit05]

I've been adding plants, driftwood, and pest snails from my established 9 gallon. I've also been supplementing beneficial bacteria every day (liquid and those aqueon pure balls). Today's water testing showed solid pH (around 6.5), low ammonia (.25), zero nitrites, and around 5.0 for nitrates. Seems like the cycle is going along nicely. 

Pic for update!